some things about kiddo

During nap/rest time today, Kiddo was alone in her room talking to some of her imaginary people. Was she introducing herself to her class/ teaching? I don't know. I do know that she made an itemized list of 30 things about herself. Unfortunately I only managed to remember about 15 of them, and I am not able to list them in the order they came in. But I love these windows into her soul. (It's important to list the number before the item, because she did label each one.)

8. I have a lot of candy [from Halloween].
9. My mom doesn't think I should eat very much candy.
10. My dad thinks I should eat candy after three meals, breakfast, one; lunch, two; and three is dinner.
...
16. Most of my room is pink; it's my favorite color!
17. We'll be moving into a new house soon.
18. My parents want me to know that when we move we'll get a kitty-cat!
19. I have lots of books, stuffed animals, and toys that I don't want my little sister to touch.
...
21. When I grow up I want to be an artist. Not a firefighter, or an astronaut, but just an artist.
22. I love to paint. Not color in the lines, or crayon, or marker, just paint.
...
25. I have lots of dresses, two are matching with my sister, and one is a costume.
26. I have a Cinderella light with an "on-screw" that is very hard to turn.
27. I love being a girl.
...
29. We had a Halloween party at preschool today.
30. I have lots of dresses, shirts, and skirts. Sometimes my mom makes me wear leggings, pants, jeans or shorts.



Speaking of windows into her soul, Babs was teasing her this afternoon, as always. I tried to explain to Kiddo AGAIN that Babs was just teasing. (Specifically today, every time Kiddo tried to assert that she was the big sister, Babs would say no. Kiddo was so distressed that Babs wouldn't listen to her.) "She teases. That's what she does." I stressed.

"I don't tease," replied Kiddo solemnly.

And my heart reached out to her, without possibly having the words to express to her how deeply I understood her. I know she doesn't tease, and barely understands the concept. I know that this will be a (seemingly) never ending source of misunderstanding between her and her sister (because Babs loves to tease), and be a source of joy to her sister. And I get it, because it took me years to learn to tease (and more importantly, take a tease) myself. Yes, my little sincere one, I know, you don't tease.

Last night the girls were watching something on the computer, and my husband and I went downstairs to watch TV (they didn't follow us, it was strange). When we finally came upstairs again, there was Kiddo, bravely trying to watch her site while Babs was gleefully twisting her hair in knots. I told Babs, not for the first time, what an amazingly patient and good big sister she had. The typical child would have been whomped in that situation.